River Daughter
by galaxies in her eyes
Summary: Maia is the daughter of a goddess no one has ever seen a child of. Written for Querencia, Quarter Quell, Round 5.


**Written for Querencia; Quarter Quell, Round Five.**

 **Prompts:**

 **1.** mistakes between it's and its — _do not use either word in your fic at all  
_ **2.** mistakes between your and you're — _do not have characters address others at all  
_ **3.** mistakes with comma overusage — _you may only use three commas in your entire fic  
_ **5.** mistakes with dialogue — _every piece of dialogue in your fic must follow Training Room guidelines  
_ **11.** connecting errors — _this includes errors with connecting your sentences such as with commas and semicolons as well as conjunctions; you may have at most three of these errors_

* * *

 **A/N: I hate this story. I'm seriously only posting this because I'll get in trouble if I don't. Read at your own risk!**

* * *

"Wait. Wait a sec. Back up." Black-haired Maia made a time-out motion with her hands and her face wrinkled up into a skeptical expression. "I'm a — what now?"

"A demigod." A girl in her late teens who went to her school — Maia thought her name was Annabeth — stood in front of her with a scrawny guy who would have looked about ten years old if not for the fact that he had a goatee. "Half-human, half —"

"God." Maia finished. "Half god." She nodded slowly in understanding: it all made sense now. "Is that why weird things have been happening to me?"

The guy spoke in a reedy voice that sounded nervous: "Yeah. Demigods have an aura of..."

He trailed off as if unable to describe it. His nose twitched like a bunny's.

Annabeth turned back to Maia. "Demigods — or half-bloods as they are also sometimes known — are only safe in one place: Camp Half-Blood."

* * *

Those words were the beginning of a whole new era.

Maia was escorted (safely) to Camp Half-Blood by Annabeth and the guy (who she learned was named Grover and who was actually a satyr). It was a lot better than her home life.

Pretty much anything was better than her home life...

Under-appreciated Maia was glad to leave and attend to camp. It wasn't like any camp she'd ever attended — there was a campfire that reacted to the campers' group mood and a dining pavilion where everyone ate and twelve main cabins — one for each Olympian god — and even some for other minor gods.

She learned that each camper was supposed to be "claimed" by age thirteen because of some promise a hero of some war had obtained from the gods.

Clearly that wasn't the case for her.

Here she was at age fifteen and still unable to fit in. She had never known her real parents as she was adopted — and she still had no idea whether it would be her mother or father who was the godly parent. Annabeth and her boyfriend Percy Jackson (who was apparently the war hero who had extracted the promise of claiming by age thirteen from the gods) tried to comfort her — but to no use. Her nerves acted up because Chiron told her gravely that most half-bloods were claimed either as soon as they arrived at camp or at the campfire the first night they attended.

That didn't work for Maia. She attended the campfire with her heart in her throat and didn't sing any of the goofy songs the other campers did.

* * *

It had been three days and still Maia had not been claimed. She spent her nights in the Hermes cabin — where those stayed until they were claimed and could move into their respective parent's cabin. Her days were spent roaming the camp and attempting to participate in the events. Her favorite was Capture the Flag — though she admitted she could have been biased because her team had won for the first time in several weeks.

She met a lot of other demigods. The gods apparently weren't that concerned with fidelity to their partners. She learned about a war that had taken place just weeks ago. There were seven demigods involved and half of them were at camp.

Annabeth was the one who had broken the news to her about her half-blood status. She was the daughter of Athena. Her boyfriend was the son of Poseidon.

Another couple introduced themselves to her a few days after her arrival at camp. Piper was the daughter of Aphrodite — goddess of love and beauty — and her boyfriend Jason was the son of the sky lord: Zeus. Only Piper told her that Jason was actually the son of Jupiter — Zeus' Roman counterpart. Maia nodded her head but didn't understand a word of what the gorgeous girl said.

The remaining three weren't at camp. Hazel and Frank were also Roman demigods. Frank was (so Annabeth told her) something called a "praetor of Rome."

Leo (son of Hephaestus) had given his life for the cause. Maia thought that was both noble and sad. She liked living too much to die — even for her friends.

* * *

The next afternoon found Maia sitting on a bench at the side of the archery court. She heard footsteps behind her and turned her head to see Annabeth sit down across from her.

"Camp is nice, isn't it?" she asked. Annabeth has straight blonde hair and tanned skin. Beside her, Maia felt very plain with her pale skin and wavy shoulder-length black hair.

Maia nodded. "I really like it here. I just want to be claimed."

Annabeth nodded in understanding. "It just sometimes takes a while for the gods to get around to it."

Maia frowned. "I feel like..." she trailed off, unable to put the feeling into words. "I feel like — like I'm blocked or something. Like there's something preventing people from remembering me."

"How so?" Annabeth inquired. She looked curious — just like all children of Athena.

Maia spread her hands hopelessly. "I don't know. That's the problem. It's just...people never remember me if they aren't around me constantly. I don't know why. I'm sure the kids from my class don't even know me by now."

Annabeth's eyebrows had raised higher and higher while Maia spoke. She suddenly rose. "I need to go see Chiron."

* * *

"This is a very grave assumption." Chiron peered down at Annabeth.

"There isn't any other explanation for it. Not even the Hypnos cabin has that kind of power!" Annabeth said. She gestured with her hands energetically.

Chiron's eyebrows drew together. "You truly believe that Maia is the daughter of the goddess Lethe?"

"She has to be!" Annabeth said desperately. "That's the only reasonable explanation."

"Lethe is a goddess who swore she would never have children. She swore on the River Styx because Zeus was afraid her children would have unimaginable powers." Thunder rumbled. Chiron glanced up and amended his statement: "He was wary."

"And she does!" exclaimed Annabeth. "She told me that people who aren't constantly around her forget her almost immediately."

Chiron scowled thoughtfully. "Take her to the Hypnos cabin."

* * *

Maia yawned as soon as she entered the cabin. The lights were low and there was a pleasant scent perfuming the air that she couldn't quite place.

Annabeth had found her watching kids climb the lava rock wall and dragged her to one of the cabins. She hadn't said anything except that it was the Hypnos cabin.

"Clovis." Annabeth shook a kid who was still in bed even though it was nearing five in the evening. "Clovis, wake up!"

He groaned and opened a single brown eye. "Annabeth? What is it?" He yawned again and Maia yawned along with him.

Annabeth pinched her.

"Ow!" She rubbed her arm and glared at the blonde. Annabeth just shrugged and grinned sheepishly.

Then the daughter of Athena turned back to Clovis. "Who is she?"

He blinked. "Who?" Then he spotted Maia hanging back around the door and trying unsuccessfully to not yawn anymore. His eyes widened. "Lethe!"

Maia pointed at herself. "Me?"

Clovis nodded and — to Annabeth's astonishment — threw off the covers and got up. He was skinny and rather short with thin arms and legs. He peered at her and looked her up and down. Maia would have felt embarrassed by his gaze if it wasn't clear he was inspecting her and looking for something in particular.

He nodded gravely and turned to Annabeth. "She is. And I feel positive that she will be claimed tonight either at dinner or the campfire."

Then he staggered back to his bed and collapsed face-down on it and began snoring almost immediately.

* * *

Maia was excited after that. She wasn't sure if she could trust the snoring kid — but she wanted to. Desperately.

Dinner went by without incident. Everyone got up and made their burnt sacrifices to the gods. Maia rose with them and as she scraped her portion of steak into the fire, she prayed to Lethe.

 _Please let me be claimed at the bonfire._

 _Please let me be claimed at the bonfire._

 _Please let me be claimed at the bonfire._

These words played over and over in her head as she made her way down to the campfire along with Annabeth. The blonde had kept a worried silence for the evening — not even Percy had been able to snap her out of her funk.

They settled around the fire and started singing "This Land is Minos's Land."

Until Annabeth gasped and pointed at Maia.

No — not _at_ her. Maia realized Annabeth was pointing above her. She glanced up and her mouth dropped open.

A glowing symbol floated and bobbed over her head. But it wasn't one like she had ever seen before. It had the symbol of the Hypnos cabin — a popular branch dripping liquid — but the wavy line was above it instead of below it as it was with the Hypnos cabin.

Murmurs and whispered comments were made by the other campers.

Chiron knelt and everyone else followed suit. His voice was grave when he spoke: "All hail Maia Sintros, daughter of Lethe."

* * *

 _Word count: 1,563_


End file.
